Mack hung up on Geithner, Bernanke, and Paulson over $2 buyout demand
John Mack · How John Mack Saved Morgan Stanley & Transformed Wall Street · Joe Lonsdale · Feb 15, 2023 · at 21:40
Former Morgan Stanley CEO John Mack describes the high-stakes call where regulators pressured him to sell the bank during the 2008 crisis.
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“I go over and pick up the phone, and he said, I'm on here with Ben Bernanke and Hank Paulson. You know, we want you to sell your firm. And I said, well, you know, out of respect for you, I called Jamie Dimon, and he'd only pay me two dollars a share. And Guy Aitner said, well, I don't care what he'd pay you. Pick it up and sell your company. And I said, I won't do it. And thank God I said, I won't do it. I said, I won't do it. And I hung up on him.”
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